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Chapter 243: Taste Test

Water continuously flowed in the tower’s kitchen, same as in my house. The temperature of the water on the island is around 12 to 13 degrees, so the coolness is very much welcome in the sweltering environment.

Aside from the tomato sauce for the potato gnocchi, let’s make a sauce with ingredients that they’re familiar with, like cheese and fresh cream. It’s already past the time for lunch, so maybe something else too?

Only one cup of white wine — no, I should use white grape juice. The potato gnocchi is already done, so it didn’t take me too long to prepare the food.

Maybe I should serve mango and sugarcane too; consider this meal as laying the groundwork for planting the crops that I want in the fields. The changelings won’t be able to taste it, so it’s for Soleil.

「Excuse me. 」
Auro smiled broadly.

「Come in. 」
「It takes courage to eat here, you know. Ugh, just imagine the pressure if we dirtied this place… 」
Soleil seemed really uneasy.

「The furniture here are all temporary, so I don’t really mind even if you dirtied them, you know? 」
「Uuughhh. 」
Did she have some sort of trauma against expensive furniture and flooring?

「Oh goodness, it’s the first time I saw a spirit lantern. 」
Charles. I also installed them in the water source tower, you know.

「Just pick a spot and sit down. 」
I arranged the dishes on the table while saying that. The plates are snow white porcelain that I commissioned in Pasteur, and the cutlery were the completed sets I hunted for in Nalluahdid while shopping full throttle.

「The cutlery… Nalluahdid only have very few pieces of these, and yet… 」
Soleil really is knowledgeable when it comes to new items, huh.

「It’s solid and beautiful. 」
Faramir seemed unusually spellbound as she stared at them.

「What a delightful aroma. 」
Auro seemed to be in a buoyant mood.

「…. 」
In contrast to him, Kiel looked like someone being led to the gallows.

「Just like I said earlier, we have potato gnocchi here. There are two variants. 」
The first variant is made of eggplant, zucchini, pancetta, mozzarella and tomato sauce. The other one is made with fresh cream sauce and cheese.

「You can sprinkle black pepper on the white variant, depending on your taste. 」
Tah-dah, I made a pepper mill! Grinding pepper with mortar and pestle every single time was a major pain in the neck, and it also tastes better if my handmade dishes have pepper in them.

「Black pepper has spread widely recently. But it’s still expensive for ordinary folks, since there’s no efficient means to transport them yet.
Soleil sighed.

There’s the boatmen that transport them, but even so, I still associate spices such as pepper with slavery. It’s good that they’re widely available now, but I couldn’t help but think about where they came from.

「How do you open this? 」
「You don’t, just twist it like this. 」
I demonstrated how to do it on my plate while Kiel watched on with a grimace.

「That’s convenient. And freshly ground spices have a stronger aroma too. 」
I was about to hand the pepper mill to Kiel when Soleil took it from me. She happily started grinding.

「I have never seen this before, may I know where you obtained this? 」
Faramir said while staring at me as I passed her the pepper mill.

「I made it. 」
「… Can I sell this too? I don’t really have the time to do everything personally, so I’m thinking of commissioning this. 」
「I’m fine with that, but I think this can still be improved. 」
「I think this is more than enough though… 」
Soleil always connects everything to business, huh. Well, it’s fine with me.

「…Kiel, won’t that be too spicy? 」
Kiel was seriously grinding away, and the white sauce had turned black. He apparently came to his senses when I called out to him; he froze when he saw his plate. Eh, were you enjoying it, perhaps?
「So this is potato… The red sauce is made from tomatoes, right? Zucchini… this should be eggplant? 」
Charles was examining the food on his plate.

「It was extremely scrumptious as always, MiLord. 」
Auro grinned while wiping his mouth with a handkerchief — ack, so fast!? You already finished all of that!?

「Auro, this isn’t like you. Did you forget your vigilance somewhere else…? 」
Kiel was shocked. Hey, Kiel, I don’t think we need to hear that from you of all people, you know?

「…Marvelous. Compared to the snacks, these are — 」
Charles gaze was still fixed on the plate; he ate the tomato sauce variant.

「As I thought, the person who made those sweets are you, Feudal Lord-sama, am I right? 」
「W-What!? 」
Kiel looked like he was struck by a thunderbolt with Faramir’s revelation.

「Eh, you didn’t notice? 」
That’s more astonishing. Everyone seemed considerably surprised, but they seemed to have a hint — everyone aside from Kiel, that is.

「YOU made THIS…!? 」
Hey, I’d be troubled if you tremble like that while staring at me.

「The taste isn’t a matter of cooking, but of ingredients. More spirits will probably come to this island, so you can probably taste the crops harvested from the fields. 」
「Then let’s start right away, MiLord. 」
「Yeah, I’ll leave that to — 」
Ack, I thought it was Auro, but it turned out to be Charles. Ehh, my followers increased!? Auro was still beaming while nodding.

「Ahh, I also want to plant these, but you won’t be able to taste these. 」
I handed a plate of diced mango and 10cm long sugar cane to Soleil.

All eyes turned to the plate. Nah, I already said you won’t be able to taste this, only Soleil, you know?

「Sweet, it melts in the mouth. This is sugarcane, isn’t it? I only had it once, it’s the raw ingredient for making sugar, right? But I’m afraid we won’t have enough space on the island if we’re going to plant all these. 」
Soleil seemed quite taken with the mango, but she still maintained her cool.

「No, we’re not going to sell them as is in the market. Instead, I’m thinking of letting the restaurants handle them. Once we have reached a certain level of harvest, I want to sell them to a company that handles sugarcane and have them spread it. Ah, mango and sugarcane only grows in hot areas, so those two are just hobbies. 」
The area of my house in the mountains isn’t hot enough. The glasshouse is currently in an impasse because the glass ended up being an insurmountable barrier against heat.

「I see, so you want folks to know the taste and have them buy these, huh. Charles, can I leave the selection of the people who will work on the fields to you? 」
「Yes, of course. If those two need somewhere hot, then how about the southern side? It’s considerably far from the waterways. May I also know what are the necessary conditions for the potatoes, tomato and eggplants? 」

I explained each of those vegetables to Charles and planned the arrangements for them accordingly. We would serve these vegetables in the high-end inns to select customers first. First target clients would be the wealthy guys of Nalluahdid — the bigwigs of the Commerce Guild, or maybe we could invite the CEO’s of the huge companies. I hope we could make the fields work in time for that. Well, in case we didn’t make it, I’ll just bring some from my house.

「Snacks… You’re the one who made the snacks… 」

Why the heck can’t you believe it, huh? Just hurry up and return to reality, will you.

A serious and earnest proposal to fence the fields and lock it came due to the ongoing battle for sweets. Ahh, will my employees be alright?